Election Universe

Vietnam climbs 10 notches on UN e-Government list

In what observers are considering a strong indicator of Vietnam’s resoluteness in adopting e-Governance, the country has just moved up ten places in a UN study ranking the progress of its member states in regard to development of e-Governance.

Vietnam has taken the 89th spot in the ranking contained in the recently released United Nations E-Government Survey 2016: E-Government in Support of Sustainable Development, which provides a review of the level of development of e-government among its member states.

This marks a steady progress for the Southeast Asian nation which has moved from the group of countries with medium development level in 2014 to the group of countries with high development level in 2016. Currently, Vietnam is placed No. 6, trailing Singapore (No. 4), Malaysia (No. 60), the Philippines (No. 71), Thailand (No. 77) and Brunei (No. 83).

By 2017, the country aims to be among the top four countries in ASEAN in online service index and among the top three in e-government development index.

In support of this, the government has issued Resolution No. 36a which calls for greater application of information technology in State management and e-public services in efforts to reduce the time and cost of completing administrative procedures.

The resolution also mandates all central State agencies to give users access to online forms and submissions by the end of 2016.

Already, cities and provinces nationwide have made considerable gains in implementing e-government. In Ho Chi Minh City, Deputy Chairman of People’s Committee Tran Vinh Tuyen has directed telecommunications giant FPT to prepare a plan to harness big data to improve services to its constituents. More specifically, FPT will be collecting data on the city’s population, housing, and business enterprises.

In central Da Nang City, on the other hand, citizens can now schedule and appointment with the Center for Public Service thru SMS or calls, eliminating the inconvenience of physically visiting the agency. Online complaints handling has also been implemented in early 2016.